Maes personnel file details investigation, missteps

Would-be governor Dan Maes[1] today released more than a dozen pages of his police personnel file that he says validates his story about his time with the Liberal[2]Kansas[3] Police Department a quarter century ago.

[4]

Dan Maes in the mid-1980s as a police officer in Liberal, Kansas

While the documents show Maes was part of an ongoing investigation into a small-town gambling ring back in 1985, they also show that he was fired for leaking information about the probe to a relative of a suspected ringleader.

“My only misconduct has been the sharing of the pressures and anxieties of a complex investigation with the most important person in my life which has been loyal to me and my role as a police officer,” Maes wrote in July 1985, pleading for his job. “Neither I nor she have jeopardized any investigation.”

Maes was engaged to DeAnna Andrade[5] at the time, and Maes says in the letter that the couple did not have a close relationship with her family, which was under investigation for an alleged bookmaking operation.

Maes previously affirmed to The Post that while he spent time as an officer in the Andrade’s home, he did not tip off any family member about the investigation.

The file sheds light on ongoing speculation about his dismissal that has plagued the campaign since early September, caused Maes to retract some of his statements about his work in Kansas and has cost him the endorsements of powerful Republican officials.

“I have maintained from the beginning the veracity of my account — an account that has now been independently verified,” Maes said in a statement. “The accusation that I somehow fabricated the story of working with KBI has now been completely debunked, and I would hope that my critics will now apologize with the same zeal they formerly used to attack.”

“I would also encourage any Republicans who withdrew their support based on the inaccurate initial reports to reconsider their decision and once again support the Republican nominee for governor,” Maes continued.

The questions about his “undercover” work while in Liberal served as a tipping point for many conservatives like former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown and many Tea Party leaders, who pulled support following allegations Maes embellished his resume. GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams at the time encouraged Maes to step aside, though as party leader still officially supports Maes.

Nowhere in the personnel documents does it mention the word “undercover.” Nor does the file mention suspected drug activity, an assertion Maes published on his campaign webpage.

Kistner also said Maes told two suspects about the existence of the investigation during a confrontation after Maes was tapped by both the Kansas Bureau of Investigation[8] and the police department to gather information.

“You submitted to interviews by your superiors and members of the (KBI). You were specifically cautioned not to reveal the contents of your conversations … to Dee Andrade or to members of her family,” Kistner wrote. “During an interview … with the KBI agent assigned to investigate the gambling operation, you reported to him that you advised the persons involved in the gambling operation of the existence and nature of their investigation, thus ruining any chance for the investigation to bear fruit.”

In an interview with The Post, Cokeley also said that Maes did not warn him there was an investigation, a fact Cokeley only discovered when he and Mike Andrade were chastised but not charged for the bookmaking operation at the police department.

Maes’ 1985 appeal for his job does mention a meeting with KBI agents in a Super 8 Motel, likely the incident he’s since described to reporters as reminiscent of the cop film Serpico[12].

He has also backed off on the term “undercover,” saying in earlier interviews with The Post that he misspoke, though he has continued to assert he was fired for getting too close to powerful people.

“I got too close to some significant people in the community who were involved in these activities and abruptly was dismissed from my position,” Maes wrote in a statement on his campaign Web site that was later removed. “I was blindsided and stunned to say the least.”

While the file shows Maes provided information to KBI agents, there’s no mention of who the investigation targeted or a hint that “significant people in the community” had played a role in his dismissal.

The director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation said in an earlier interview that the agency has no record of Maes working undercover with the agency during his stint as a police officer from 1983 to 1985.

“We’ve checked our records. We’ve talked to people working in that area (southwest Kansas) at the time,” said Bob Blecha[13], director of the law enforcement agency. “He (Maes) refers to a gambling case and possible drugs. They (agents) don’t recall him working with them on any case like that.”

Blecha said some of the agents, most of whom are now retired, do remember Maes as a police officer. It’s possible Maes at some point cooperated with agents on small matters as other officers might, Blecha said.

But he stressed, “He (Maes) did not work for us or with us on an investigation.”

[6] in the most recent survey commissioned by Fox News and conducted by Pulse Opinion Research: http://blogs.denverpost.com/thespot/2010/09/28/fox-poll-buck-leads-bennet-47-43-tancredo-support-more-than-double-that-for-maes/15321/